V-19 Troubleshoot

There are three basic things you should know about the fairies. The first is that their tiers and levels are constantly in flux. The second, Necromancy doesn't work on them, since they don't really die. And the third, don't bother keeping them as slaves.

Yeah, it's kind of fun to imagine forcing the system's favored bastards to pop every boil on your ass or fold your bedsheets, but they just don't work that way. Their rules are weird and nonsensical. Their legend is tied to stories and song.

Forget to play three strings in the morning? Oh well, that fae's now a Legendary Pathbearer for the next, I don't know, until whenever the next monsoon hits where you live. But also, they are deathly afraid of chickens and if you throw one at them, it will mortally wound them for a century, and they'll have to spend all that time recovering.

Sounds strangely specific? Yeah, it's because I actually suffered through that.

But the old Realmrunner wasn't done. Nope, he was determined to actually get his money's worth, so I kidnapped another one. This one was a fae warrior, a real killer, named himself Beast of Beasts, and ran from one world to another, butchering the biggest, meanest, ugliest monster he could find.

I thought I'd got myself a real edge, could start harvesting monster parts to make a fortune. But as I brought him into Integrated Earth, guess what happened? That's right, he touched a piece of synthetic material, turned into a flock of doves, and vanished into a light spray of colorful light that played a song about friendship and stabbing monsters in the eye or some drivel.

Last I checked, he's back in his usual spot in the Fairwoods, in between hopping other realms and murdering more monsters. Tried kidnapping him two more times, but it seems that anything that's not a natural material banishes him back to where he was spawned.

Why? For what reason?

Stupid as it might sound, the fairies are things that are made from stories. You can try vivisecting them too, but there's nothing inside, unless the story says so. A couple have hearts, but that's because it fits their lore. And if you steal these hearts from them, it either makes them inhumanly powerful, or utterly weak and beholden to you in all things.

Now, you might ask me, "Realmrunner, why don't you just take one of those easily enslaved fairies then? The heart thing you just talked about, that sounds simple."

I did. And guess what? This Legendary-Tier fairy that I managed to steal the heart from—took me considerable effort and near a million minions, by the way—became less than an adept. Because stealing their hearts severed them from the source of their power, and because they don't feel formidable anymore, they weren't.

That's it. That's the story, kids.

Put it simply, stay out of the Fairwoods. It's a miserable place, it's gonna eat up all your mithril, it's gonna eat up all your resources, it's gonna kill all of your forces, and you're gonna come back where you started with less than what you had, with a new desire in your heart to burn the entire fae woods down.

Unfortunately, that doesn't work either, because it's just as likely that your flames suddenly wake up and start holding hands with the trees, singing a happy song, before leading them back to you and beating you so bad that you develop a phobia of vegetation for the next 20 years.

Yeah, I experienced that too. Laugh it up. It'll happen to you.

Stay out of the fairylands.

Stay out of the fairylands.

Stay out.

-Fairy and the Fairwoods by the Realmrunner

V-19

Troubleshoot

The insides of the anchor combusted with corrosive mana. Shiv came within an inch of flinging himself back across time to where his temporal anchor resided within the Coliseum. The orcs and prisoners who entered the fray to assist him were diving through the pathways as well. At the heart of it all was Andra, clenching her corroded heart in a closed fist and wielding a necromantic glaive that promised soul-rending wounds to anyone it licked.

But, and quite befitting the theme of this fight, another surprise unfolded.

Cullywier materialized before Shiv in a flush of color and fragrance. The fairy stepped free from a place beyond Shiv's awareness, beyond perhaps even this realm, and stood there, a rail-thin creature beholding certain death.

Regret immediately seized Shiv. He should have blinked away, returned to his temporal anchor and had the others beat their retreat as well. Andra was a Legendary Pathbearer, and she was far harder to kill than he expected. Now, it seemed that the poor fairy was about to pay a price.

But then Cullywier did something unexpected: He held up a single finger, and every bit of corrosive mana went still before him. His body came alight with the faintness of blue Animancy mana. Shiv's eyes widened. He stopped mustering his Chronomancy and found himself entranced.

The Animancy flowing from Cullywier evolved. It became something else, something of a rippling resonance. Then the Necromancy sawed across it, and it sounded as if a bow greeting strings. A melody played, and it was sweet and inhuman. Blood began to seep down from Shiv's nose, poured free from his ears and eyes. But inside, he felt a strange sorrow claw its way out of his heart, which then turned to manic happiness thereafter.

His response to the fairy’s song was muted compared to the orcs and other prisoners. Dawn let out a piercing cry and tumbled just short of one of the dimensional rifts. Helix obliterated his inner eardrums, jets of viscera blurting free from the sides of his head. Every single time-clone Kura dispatched into battle vanished as one, and Candles clutched his head as he began to mutter about the memories coming back.

But it was the Necromancy that responded the most to Cullywier's siren song. Instead of lashing out and cleaving into everyone's souls, it surged toward the fairy. It speared into his rail-thin being and melded with that faint blue, painting the space around him like an aura. A co-mingling followed, and the faint blue became a purest white.

The necromancy was neutralized entirely. And across from the fairy, Andra let out a snarl of frustration and disbelief.

"What ape trick is this?"

Undeterred, even as she began to bleed as well, she flung herself at Cullywier. But instead of striding forth as an unstoppable Pathbearer, she staggered, she stumbled, and she swung her necromantic glaive as if a drunk fielding a boat oar.

Her first blow missed Cullywier by a good meter. She readjusted, and before her second strike could fall, Shiv slammed into her chest.

At the same time, Urri dove through the air, trying to strike Shiv from behind, but promptly missed and slammed headfirst against Candles instead. The Vulteg let out a shriek as his face caught fire, and reflexively the blazing prisoner clutched the High Marshal's tentacles as they started another sloppy wrestling match.

Andra roared, and that turned into a choked sound as Shiv slammed his forehead into her lower jaw. A piece of her chin fractured inward, and he wrapped his hands around her shoulder and wrenched hard. A satisfying snap followed as her upper clavicle burst free below her neck. Shiv spiked his vectors down and slammed her heart against the ground, then began to knee her, using his legs while keeping her arm secured.

She struggled and fought, unleashing her cryomancy against him. Meanwhile, Cullywier walked toward them, and her glaive flickered before it too was wrenched out from her grasp, along with her heart in tow. They entered the fairy's body, just as the corrosive mana had done before.

Cullywier seized the Jotun's heart, and she let out a panicked cry, one that quickly turned into a groan as Shiv dropped an elbow on the side of her temple. He took advantage of her discombobulation and readjusted his positioning. He spun until his chest was pressing down on her head, and then he dropped two more elbows and a frying pan against her neck.

Andra gurgled. She reached up with a hand, but Shiv cut her fingers away, then he stomped down on her face once more. She tried to say something, but he wrapped her face using his Vitae strands, and he began to drain in earnest. A flood of life-force splashed within the anchor, and the heat built in the atmosphere.

The Jotun choked and struggled, and Shiv could barely make out her words. "No! Stop! Help! Return! Factory!"

That confirmed things for Shiv. What she possessed wasn't just vaguely resemblant of Valor's Soul Cage, it was probably related as well.

"How the hells did you manage to perform the ritual of the dichotomous soul," Shiv muttered.

The Jotun's cryomancy exploded out of her, but instead of being allowed to consume the room once more, Shiv had been gathering overflow tides, and he expended them all at once. They slammed against the Jotun's magic, and a clash followed. Legendary Pathbearer struggled against Legendary Pathbearer, and an impasse was the result. Glistening vectors shattered rushing surges of ice before winking out themselves.

With every heartbeat, Shiv generated more strength to spend, and the outline of a dragon began to flicker around Andra's body as she tried to get back up. Her face healed, but Shiv kept draining her, and she got weaker and weaker. A rasping cry escaped from her brutalized throat, and he pressed down with a feral growl of his own.

Didn't need to go this way. Didn't need to die at my hands. Didn't need to make a mess of things.

Her strength flagged; Shiv's didn't. His anger climbed as he wondered if his cover was lost. They kept their fight mostly contained to the anchor, but the sheer amount of power they threw around, Harlock would have to be blind if he didn't see it, or blinded by a combination of Veronica and Cripple's efforts—-hells, the Educator was involved as well.

As she gave a final cry of effort, the ice around her surged, but it was then that Shiv noticed a glistening outline clinging to her magic, and a blackened grid as well. He sliced into it without hesitation, his frying pan carving bits of her mana free.

This time, Andra gave a genuine shriek of pain, and Shiv took full advantage. He smashed through her cryomancy, delivered another blow to her neck. It crackled and popped, her veins spewed open, and blood began to spurt out like gushing rivers. She tried to muster her mana, but Shiv cleaved another part of it away, and then he brought the blunt end of his pan down.

Deepest Edge 66 > 69

Pillar of OrichalcumOverdrive 179 > 181

The front part of her face flattened and caved in before the blow. But that wasn't enough, Shiv knew. He cut another piece of her mana away, but this time shoved it into the center of his pan. It began to swirl with blackness, and he swung down once more. This time, his blows were heavier, his cuts ran deeper. The upper half of her face vanished entirely, turning into a spray of viscera.

He kept going. He cut again and again, cultivating new Overflow Vectors and wielding his strength in tandem with his deepest edge. Shiv mangled her body in ways Gone couldn't earlier. Her bones turned to powder, her insides turned to paste, and her mana was scalped piece by piece and infused inside his rumbling Morsel to increase its density, its weight, its power.

He struck her again and again, cracking the ice beneath her, shattering her armor and body, sending splashes of burst tissue and hot blood over himself.

By now, he was knee-deep in bloody muck. Ropes and trails and steaming mounds of exposed tissue sent him into a near berserk state, but he held himself back. He forced his vitae deep into her being, and he started pushing hard, so hard that her magical resistance finally shattered before his wrathful will. His mutant spirit surged into her soul, and he could feel her recoil, hear her fear. A chain formed between the Jotun and the Deathless, and it was a frozen thing, a black thing of red, white, and midnight crusted frost.

A loud shout came from behind Shiv, and he reflexively twisted, bringing his pan behind his head. A loud ringing sound deafened him as Urri's punch landed hard upon the surface of his frying pan. Then two Veilpiercers hit the Vulteg's ankles, just as Candles and Gone slammed into him from behind. As they went rolling over in a heap, Shiv returned to the task of finally ripping the Jotun apart at the deepest level.

"Didn't want to fucking do this," Shiv growled to himself. His mood grew blacker, and the tendrils of Vitae he projected lashed harder, coiling back like snapping serpents, striking serpents as they slithered deeper into her mangled body. "Could have avoided this shit. You happy system? You happy? Here, I killed another person, I'm gonna rip them apart from the inside. Another legendary death, you fucking happy?"

He felt her magical skill, and began to sink his Vitamancy inside it. Just then a notification flashed before his eyes, and the Deathless clenched his teeth.

Stop! Deathless, you have bested me. You are a true warrior, better than I. But I must ask of you, stop, I do not fear to lose my own life, but there is something—

Shiv stopped reading.

He didn't give a shit anymore. The Jotun lost mercy privileges when she cut him in half from behind. He didn't have it in him to be kind anymore. Any mercy offered would be at his peril and the peril of those he cared about.

He began to tear, and things inside her broke. He couldn't hear her scream, but he knew that she was begging somewhere, knew that she was desperate not to die by how much harder the fear-chain between them was growing. Power surged into Shiv. He grew larger, his muscles swelled, his Vitamancy went from tendrils to dense cords. And as a result, her soul came asunder, breaking down the middle as he shattered the first of her skills. It didn't feel particularly deep, so that wasn't her Cryomancy. 

He moved on to the others, spreading out like a branching infection creeping under the skin, seeking every major organ he could to destroy them from within, to rip away that which made them whole, and to murder the lore that sustained her soul.

"Deathless," Cullywier said, there was a melodic quality to the fairy's voice, yet Shiv ignored it, even if he yearned to turn and hear the fae speak again.

"Deathless," Cullywier said, a little louder, "I must advise against this," and that brought Shiv back to reality.

It didn't matter how nice the fairy sounded. This fucker tried to kill him, did kill him twice, did force a fight when it didn't need to be one, and also tried to risk the lives of everyone within the academy and far beyond.

A gust of fragrant wind rushed around and tightened its hold upon Shiv. The Deathless's fury was incensed. "Cullywier, if you intervene on her behalf, I swear to the system I will do you after."

"It is not on her behalf that I act, but yours. This is simply unwise. She is not someone you wish to kill, not without damning yourself to a lifetime of being hunted."

A bitter laugh sounded from Shiv's throat. He popped another one of her skills, and it was ever so satisfying to feel her come apart from the inside out. His anger and frustration had alchemized into hate. The system wanted this of him, then he would feed it. He would give it the show it so desired. He would mangle, cripple, mutilate, and obliterate every single individual and monster that was forcibly sent his way, especially if they were too stupid to take up his offer of peace and see themselves spared.

"I’m already hunted," Shiv snapped, "what's a few more bastards on my ass? Just more victims to be, just more people to bloody my pan, to bloody—"

That made Shiv's insides recoil with even more strain. His pan was bloodied. He was killing people with implements from the kitchen. It wasn't that violence and bloodshed bothered him, but it needed to be separate. The shape of his artistry and creation shouldn't be so closely aligned to the brutality he inflicted upon his enemies.

He was wrong, but the system just kept forcing him and pushing him and making him more and more into a monster. Shiv thought to himself, It just wants me to be a monster. It just wants me to break and kill and hurt. That's all it wants. It doesn't care about anything else. It just wants me to eat, eat, eat, hurt, hurt, hurt, and there's no way out. I keep trying, but it won't let me go.

A new emotion joined the swirling vortex building inside Shiv. Exhaustion, existential exhaustion. He would never give up. He would never fold, but this was wearing on him, wearing on his mind. He didn't want to kill and fight constantly, incessantly, forever, without reason, without a chance for peace, without a chance to cook, without a chance to be a person. He wanted to be a person, his own person. That's the entire point of him seeking to be a Pathbearer. And as his thoughts grew more agitated, he began ripping more of Andra's insides apart.

A loud snap came from behind him, and in the corner of his eye, he saw a spreading fracture growing upon that heart dagger. Her soul was bound to it, he thought, time to finish you off. He still hadn't found her Legendary Skills yet, but he was getting closer, and he could feel the coldness.

"I understand that your circumstances might be different from most," Cullywier continued, with a faint hint of indifferent whimsy to his voice. "But if you kill her, understand that the Court of the Shattered Moon will come for you. All of Jotunkind will hunt you until there are none of them left, or you meet your final end."

"Fuck them," Shiv snarled. “Let ‘em come. It’s a sooner or later thing by this point.”

"And if that's not enough," Cullywier continued, "you may very well find yourself at the end of Valor Thann's blade when he finally pieces himself back together."

And that stopped Shiv dead. "What?"

His head snapped. "What?" Adam's chrono-clones said just before he was dragged back through the expanded bracelet.

Just behind Cullywier, Shiv saw Urri trying to get back up, but a few dozen of Kura's time-clones had returned to the fray and were actively holding him down. Most of the Vulteg's face was melted. Candles channeled his pyromancy without any restraint, while Gone dragged scratches along the massive Vulteg's chest. Helix, Whisper, and all the other orcs attacked Urri in support as well. Despite this, he was still getting stronger. Urri's muscles swelled. His magical resistance flared so bright it became a literal shield around him. Shiv thought his toughness had been good, but what the Vulteg had was absolutely absurd.

"Valor," Shiv coughed. His Vitae twitched, and he was so close to ripping Andra apart, so close to finishing her off for good. "What the hell does she have to do with Valor?" Shiv said, his eyes wild, his hands shaking. He kept his strands buried deep within Andra's battered body. Once more, it was beginning to heal, but she wouldn't come back in time, not before he drained all of her vitality dry, not before he broke her final skill.

"Because he is the one who taught her the ritual. She was one of his disciples."

Cullywier tilted his head. "You didn't know this."

Shiv stopped draining. His Vitae strands twitched, and so did his left eye. "No," he grunted. "No, I did not. Cullywier, are you bullshitting me?"

"No," the Faerie said. He developed a look of pity for Shiv. "The Dragon Brokers said that you and Young Lord Arrow are now considered Valor Thann's closest confidants, especially since you have been spotted with him at multiple points. They assume you two were accepted as disciples as well." The fairy’s unnaturally large eyes briefly flashed with divination mana. "However, I am beginning to suspect this information might be incorrect or lacking critical details, since Valor Thann has been noted to be extremely honest with his disciples, especially due to matters such as these."

"Such as these," Shiv said dully. His head throbbed with a building headache, and that existential exhaustion inside him overtook all other emotions. The easy thing to do would just be to finish Andra off. She couldn't stop him. Cullywier didn't seem to want to stop him. He was only advising Shiv, and the winds he cast over the Deathless's body were half-hearted impediments at most. No more than a soft breeze could serve as a bulwark against a falling avalanche.

"Valor Thann has recruited many disciples, trained many Pathbearers," Cullywier said. "I have even encountered he who steals eternity on several occasions, and he slew me thrice and worked with me approximately twelve times otherwise, though he was only aware of me on two of those occasions. As such, I have some insight into his character and personality."

Just then, Adam entered the fray. He erupted from one of his dimensional pathways and came to a halt right next to Shiv. The Gate Lord was a tempest of activity. His vector wings flared bright and his hand reached out, snatching the dagger heart out of Cullywier's hand and clutching it tight with his Necromantic vambrace. The fairy tried to say something, but Adam held up a finger.

"Don't know what you are. Don't want to ask. Shiv! Conference, now!"

The Gate Lord promptly blasted Shiv with his unique skill and the Deathless felt himself obtain Adam's commander's foresight. The cognitive endurance shared by the both of them was more than doubled when Shiv projected his Psychomancy into Adam's mind.

"How'd you know it would do that?" Shiv asked.

"I didn't. I guessed," Adam replied. Then a growl of frustration escaped him. "Did I hear that right earlier? Did that stick-elf thing say that the Giantess was one of Valor's?"

"He did," Shiv said dully. "I'd like to say it's bullshit, but look at the damn dagger. Look at her Necromancy."

"Could still be a ruse," Adam said.

"Could be," Shiv replied. "But my gut tells me no. My gut tells me that Valor probably trained her at some point in the past few centuries. Now since he's broken and his mind is as scattered as his soul is, he doesn't remember at all. So he can't tell us about everyone he trained before us specifically."

"Right. Great. Wonderful. But we don't know exactly. So what do you think we should do?"

Shiv didn't respond for a few seconds.

"Shiv? Shiv? Are you alright?"

A tired noise escaped the Deathless. He tried to find the words. "My pan's all bloodied, Adam. I've got bits of brain matter inside my pan. It's all crusted on the sides. Using it like a knife. I… I don't…"

And then Adam understood. "Oh. I'm sorry."

"Yeah. Thanks. I, uh… I can keep fighting. I'm… I'm not done, Adam. I'm not…"

"You don't need to justify yourself to me, Shiv. I understand."

"I'm not done," Shiv continued. "It's just… I don't want to be just a murderer. I don't want to be just bashing and murdering and ripping things apart over and over again. I'll do it. It won't stop me. I'll do it, and I'll even enjoy it on some level. But I haven't gotten to cook, Adam. I haven't even gotten to play at being a student yet. I haven't been a chef in I don't know how long."

"I know," Adam said again, and Shiv could taste his discomfort, his misery as well. However much Shiv hated this, Adam was suffocating under his own weight too. He had to contend with the masters of his republic proving to be the worst kinds of people. He had to contend with his missing family, with his current situation.

"It's trying to drive us insane," Shiv uttered.

"What is?"

"The system," Shiv said. "The system. It just wants us to kill, kill, kill. We just don't die, and so there's just more things coming our way, and soon that's all we'll be doing, just killing, killing, killing for just a few seconds of quiet, a few seconds of peace. We can't. There's not gonna be a life this way. I just don't see it. I can see war. I can see myself giving in at some point, just turning into a monster."

"No," Adam said, and this time he was filled with resolve. "You're not going to turn into a monster."

"I mean, I'm already kind of a monster, Adam."

"Yes, but that's, that's powerfully literal. You have bits of a monster inside your mind and soul, but the fact that you care about all these things and that you want more than just violence, bloodshed, and a life beyond base animal desires means that you will never fully succumb, even if the system keeps pressing you."

"Pressing us?"

"Yeah, maybe." Shiv couldn't even bring himself to fully agree. "I tried, Adam, I really did. I wanted this to end peacefully, to make it clean. I didn't want this to happen, but she just forced it. I don't know if it's because there's something wrong with her, or if she got greedy when my notification appeared, or whatever, she just forced the fight."

"Well, you don't become Legendary without being favored, I suspect," Adam sighed. "She was likely consumed long before you were. She likely learned the system's lesson more willingly, and look at her now, a splattered mess on the ground, dead at the hands of a greater monster."

"Dead and at our mercy," Shiv said. "Oh yes, we're not giving her away. That phylactery of hers, it's ours now. The Dragon Brokers can make whatever demands they want, but considering who you are and what we offer, I don't think they're going to bid poorly when the choice comes down between us and the Jotun."

"Hope not," he replied. "How badly did you cripple her?" Adam asked.

"Pretty badly. Didn't get to her legendary tier skills yet though, hadn't found them yet when Cullywier decided to drop that nasty bomb on me. But I've shattered a lot of her. She's not going to be herself again, not unless someone like Udraal or, to a lesser extent, me fixes her soul again."

"Right, well, that's one reassurance." Adam hesitated. "Alright, so, I'm going to ask you a very simple question. Cripple or kill?"

Adam's viciousness surprised Shiv a bit, and he felt every ounce of the Gate Lord's malicious intent bleeding across their psionic link.

"I don't know, I think killing her is the safest thing."

"But if you break all of her skills," Adam interrupted, "do you think she'll be a useful source of information and knowledge?"

"Yeah, she might." But Shiv considered the implications of that. If he killed her, then according to Cullywier, he'd be dealing with the Jotuns as well. All of them. He didn't think Valor would turn on him over this, especially since he was justified. But that led him into ugly territory. Who knew what Valor was like when he was still whole?

The Valor Shiv knew was a shadow of the Legend that used to be. And then there was her divination skill, and her Cryomancy. That was the deciding factor for Shiv. Previously, he tasted Selane's Omnimancy, and though it was powerful, he spent it immediately to gain an edge against the Inquisition. Other Legendary Skills were invaluable, and with his Vitaemancy, he could use them against his enemies.

"Cripple," Shiv said, determinedly. "For now, we cripple her. I take away everything except her divination for now. I think that can be real useful for us."

"Her Divination," Adam said slowly. "Is that how she managed to fire that javelin at me?"

"Yup. Got me in the throat the first time, nearly put me down."

"Oh, well, I managed to dodge it."

"You managed to dodge it," Shiv said flatly. "How?"

"By paying attention," Adam replied with a slight huff. "It's quite obvious if you have the Awareness and the skills as well as the Reflexes."

"Oh, I have the reflexes," Shiv said. "It just suddenly appeared in my throat. Not all of us have Divination.”

"Well, then you weren't paying it any attention or trying hard enough. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Some of us are simply untalented compared to the others."

A grumble of agitated laughter escaped from Shiv. "Okay, yeah, squawk that beak, little hawk. Sing your own praises. Do it. I'm going to remember this when you next eat shit."

"Well, hopefully I die then, so there's nothing for you to vent to."

"Yeah, well, I'm going to bring you back somehow. And then I'm going to beat whoever killed you to death and hold it over you."

"I think not. We've already established you're a little too slow and a little too blind. I fear they may just escape and become a mystery in the night. Death might be the final insult you'll have to endure, Deathless. You'll be cooking and thinking with me forever."

"Maybe for 50 years," Shiv said. "After that, I might get a bird of my own, call it Adam Asshole, and eventually, after I live long enough, you'll just turn into the same people in my mind. And if that dies, I’ll get another bird after. A blue one.”

Adam snorted. "You bastard." Both of them fell quiet for a moment and shared another laugh.

"Hey, Adam," Shiv said. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," Adam replied. "I think I needed a moment too. But this is annoying, frustrating, and we need to expect more moments like these. More surprise disciples who used to study under Valor. That, and more likely, situations the system tries to force us into. The capital's already in grave danger, things are already growing poorly, but you will always be drawn toward conflict, so I'm thinking maybe you should just attack it directly."

That statement threw Shiv for a loop. "Right? Sounds like one of my plans, just throw myself at it."

"I'm not saying just throw yourself at it blindly," Adam scolded, "but what I am saying, however, is that we need to play more offense against the system. It's going to try to do things to us at every angle, using every means it has, using every one it can affect. So we must prevent, and we must prevent by directly controlling as many variables as we can. It means establishing our own sphere of awareness, our own defenses." 

Adam bit back a bark of frustration. "Gate Piety was that for us. It is still that. We need to get back there. It is a reliable fortress, but everywhere we go, we need to fortify. Everywhere we go, we must be prepared for a siege. We must be building, scouting, adapting, and shaping the circumstances to our advantage."

Shiv sort of liked what he was hearing, but he didn't grasp it, not fully.

"I'll explain more to you in detail. Right now, I think we should finish things out here, and we should deal with that Vulteg as well."

"Yeah. This one, I'm definitely gonna kill," Shiv said. "No way to use him reliably. I'll steal his toughness skill, though, before he slips away. That bastard is made out of harder stuff than even I am."

"I know. He just shrugged off my Veilpiercers like they were toothpicks."

"I tried to rip his legs off, and I think I barely sprained him. But I got something he can't counter."

"Oh? And what's that?"

"Vitality Drain. Looks like I'm going to be sucking someone's life force empty today after all.”

***

"Avatar Chandler. Avatar Chandler, confirm," Harlock said. "You do not wish for me to move in on the massive mana fluctuation originating at Phoenix Academy?

"No," Veronica said, trying to keep her right eye from twitching. She'd made a mistake. She thought that boy was smart. Instead, he was simply audacious. Who starts a fight on the campus of Phoenix Academy mere seconds after they arrived. Now, she needed to come up with a ridiculous excuse for an Ascendant to spare Shiv from recapture. I’m embarrassed for you, boy.

"There's... there's been a bit of confusion. Those are my assets. They're handling things."  Veronica leaned against her table and exploited her power. It was the technical truth, after all.

"Handling things?" Harlock said.

"Matters that are best resolved through rhetoric; the Neath is involved.”

A loud hiss of disgust came from Harlock, and she knew Shiv was spared. For now.

"I see," Harlock replied. She felt the Ascendant’s presence recede from her mind. Veronica clutched her head and sighed.

I wasn't this stupid when I was... when I was younger. I was subtle. I was careful. I thought about my actions. What is it with children these days?

And with a huff of annoyance, she pulled out her sync-letter and began drafting a note of feedback for her wayward Deathless.

To her surprise, there was already something there for her. The corner of her lip quirked up as she read his profane message directed toward her, and she scoffed. “System, boy, we need to do something about your Writing Skill. This is more of a tragedy than your lack of tact. Here. A demonstration of formatting.”

Dear Idiot “Grandson”:

It appears that when your father finished inside Udraal, he forgot to release the bit of seed that carried one’s brain cells across…